


Wake Up

by OnaDacora



Series: Blackwall and Nohvara Lavellan Drabbles [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4800167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnaDacora/pseuds/OnaDacora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blackwall's Nightmare, slightly inspired by the Trespasser DLC trailer before it came out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wake Up

Part of him knows that he’s dreaming, but it doesn’t matter. He can’t move, he can barely breathe his chest is so tight. It’s dark, but he can see the grim faces of his men as they raise axes against the wooden carriage doors. The driver and the guards are already dead; as Blackwall watches blood pools under his feet. Not just his feet. Thom Rainier –himself, younger, bare-faced– is standing in blood too.

Blackwall can see the moment Thom realizes there are too many voices from within the carriage, that he hears the high sound of children crying out in fear.

 _Stop them,_ he begs silently.  _This time, stop them._

But he doesn’t. He never does.  _Coward._

The men break through. Lord Vincent Callier tries to protect his family, but they cut him down and dump his body on the ground. More blood at Thom’s feet, at Blackwall’s feet.

The wife is next. They slit her throat to stop her screams. They lay her beside her husband.

Then the children.  _Maker, let me wake up._  Sometimes one of them looks like his sister Liddy. This is one of those times. He wants to cry, but he can’t even do that. He is frozen.

It should be over. Everyone is dead. But some of the men are still in the carriage and he can hear the sounds of a struggle.

_No, please not her._

But it is. Of course it is. The Inquisitor is forced out onto the road, caught by the hair, hands held behind her back and another man holding a knife to her throat.

“What do you want to do with the knife-ear, Captain?”

She’s looking at  _him_ , the only one in the dream to see him there. She’s terrified, helpless.

“Help me, Blackwall!  _Please!_ ”

Thom Rainier and his men don’t seem to hear her pleas. Thom looks at her in a way that turns Blackwall’s stomach, a hunger in his eyes that shames him. But the expression is gone as he shakes his head. “Orders were clear. No survivors.”

“ _Blackwall!_ ”

He wants to look away or close his eyes but he can’t. He’s forced to watch the blade draw across her throat, blood spilling down her front. Her eyes never leave his until the light is gone from them and her body is dumped on the ground with the others.

Only then is he finally given the mercy of waking up.

* * *

Blackwall woke with a haggard gasp, his fingers digging into the sheets. His heart pounded in his ears and it took him a moment to realize where he was. The Inquisitor’s bedroom, early morning. The soft light of dawn lit the room.

“Nohvara?” he murmured quietly, rolling over to try and find her.

The bed was empty.

He sat up quickly, fear tightening his chest. “Nohvara?” he called out, louder.

“Blackwall, are you awake?”

Relief flooded him as she came in from the balcony, a steaming cup in her hands. She had on his shirt from the night before, though she was so small that it went down to her knees and the sleeves covered her hands. There was a smile on her face, but it vanished as she caught sight of him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him, taking a moment to set down her cup on the desk before going to him.

“I thought…” He shook his head and rested his forehead against her chest. “Just a nightmare.”

She climbed onto the bed, onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and she hugged his head against her chest, one hand stroking his hair. “I’m right here,” she said.

He listened to her heartbeat, closing his eyes as she held him. He took a slow, steady breath, breathing in the smell of her mingled with himself from the shirt. It helped drive the nightmare from his mind. She was real,  _this_  was real.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” he said.

“You already did.”

Green light blinded him, even through closed eyes. His arms were empty, his body was cold.

* * *

Blackwall woke up again, truly this time. He was alone, and he knew that the Inquisitor wasn’t hiding just out of sight. She was gone.


End file.
